Suction cleaner nozzle



Dec. 12, 1961 R. DESCARRIES 3,012,268

SUCTION CLEANER NOZZLE Filed April 1, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVE TOR fay/w MM F/6.4 BY [if ATTORNEY D 12, 1961 R. DESCARRIES 3,012,268

SUCTION CLEANER NOZZLE Filed April 1, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR yfiwa. ,LLATTORNEY Dec. 12, 1961 R. DESCARRlES ,2

SUCTION CLEANER NOZZLE Filed April 1, 1958 5 sheets-Sheet 5 (28 L22 INVENTOR if ma DI'ILa/M-u',

al F/GJO BY wj/ LQATTORNEY United States Eaten 3,912,258 Patented Dec. 12, 1961 lice 3,012,268 SUCTION CLEANER NOZZLE Raymond Descarries, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as-

sigaor to Aktiebolaget Electrolux, Stockholm, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Filed Apr. 1, 1958, Ser. No. 725,569

1 Claim. (Cl. 15417) This invention relates to a nozzle for a suction cleaner which may be readily and automatically adapted for clean ing different types of surfaces.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a suction cleaner nozzle that is light in weight and of sturdy construction and having a valve so arranged as to direct dust laden air properly re ardless of the type of surface being cleaned.

Another object is to provide a nozzle of this type wherein the valve is positively maintained in the operative position to which it is moved.

A further object is to provide a nozzle of this type wherein there is disposed a system of levers connected to the valve and operable by engagement of the nozzle with the surface to be cleaned to move the valve automatically to its proper operative position.

A still further object is to provide a nozzle of the above nature wherein the air directing valve is rotatable about an axis extending lengthwise of the nozzle body.

Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

in the drawhig wherein there are shown two embodiments of my invention,

FlGURE l is a perspective view showing the nozzle in one of its operative positions;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view showing the nozzle in its other operative position;

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective view of the rotary valve and its operating mechanism;

FIGURE 4 is a bottom plan view of the nozzle when it is in the FIGURE 1 position;

FIGURE 5 is a section elevation taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional elevation taken along the line 66 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of a modified form of the nozzle in one of its operative positions;

FIGURE 8 is a perspective of the modified nozzle in its other operative position;

FIGURE 9 is an exploded perspective view of the rotary valve and its operating mechanism in the FIGURE 7 form of the nozzle;

FIGURE 10 is a bottom plan view of the nozzle when it is in its FIGURE 7 position;

FIGURE 11 is a sectional elevation taken along the line 1111 or" FlGURE 7; and

FIGURE 12 is a sectional elevation taken along the line 1212 of FIGURE 7.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring first to FIGURE 1 the nozzle includes an elongated hollow body generally indicated at which may be formed of any suitable material that is light in weight and strong; preferably body 20 is molded from a suitable plastic material. Body 20 is provided with an upper wall 21, a lower wall 22, a front wall 23, a rear wall 24 and end walls 25 and 26 (see also FIGURES 2, 4 and 6). Upper wall 21 is provided with a preferably rectangular air inlet aperture 27, lower wall 22 being provided with a similar aperture 28. As shown in FIGURE 5, rear wall 24 has an air outlet hole 29 formed therein and this hole communicates by way of a fitting 30 with a wand receiving elbow 3i. Thus air may fiow into body 20 through either of apertures 27 or 28 and out of the body through hole 25 into elbow 31.

As shown in FIGURE 6, bottom wall 22 conveniently comprises a plate which may be detachably secured to body 2% by means of a pair of screws 32 and 33 which extend through upper wall 21 and are threaded into suitable bosses in bottom Wall 22. Thus access to the interior of body 20 may be readily had by removal of wall or plate 22.

Still referring to FIGURE 6, upper and lower walls 21 and 22 are so molded or cast as to include inwardly directed walls 21a, 21b, 22a and 22b which, when the upper and lower walls are assembled, form a casing for a rotary valve 34, this casing communicating with body apertures 27 and 28 and hole 29. As is more clearly shown in FlGURE 3, valve 34 is semi-cylindrical and includes end plates 34a and 34b from which co-axial hubs 35 and 36 extend respectively, and a curved plate 340.

As may be seen in FIGURE 5, valve 34 may be rotated as indicated by the arrow. When the valve is rotated to its FlGURE 5 position, aperture 28 and hole 29 are placed in communication and aperture 27 is sealed off so that dust laden air may flow through aperture 28 into body 20 and out of the body into hole 29 and thence into elbow 31. If the valve 34 is rotated about 45 clockwise from its FIGURE 5 position, aperture 28 is sealed off and aperture 27 and hole 29 are placed in communication so that dust laden air may flow through aperture 27 into body 20 and thence from the body through hole 29 into elbow 31.

In order to effect automatically this movement of valve 34 between its two operative positions, the mechanism shown in FIGURE 3 is provided. I

Connected to and extending respectively from valve hubs 35 and 36 are shafts 37 and 38, the valve hubs being journaled in the valve casing walls, and the outer ends of the shafts being journaled in body end walls 25 and 26 respectively (see FIGURE 6). A crank arm 39 has one end secured to the outer end of shaft 37 and a pin 49 extends outwardly from the other end of arm 39. As shown in FIGURE'4, crank arm 39 is disposed exteriorly of body wall 25.

In order to actuate crank 39 and accordingly, shaft 37 and valve 34, there is provided a T-shaped lever generally indicated at 41 (FIGURES 1-4). This lever includes a stem 42 having one end pivotally mounted on a pin 43 secured to and extending from body end wall 25. The other end of lever stem 42 is provided with a slot 43 through which pin 40 extends. Extending outwardly from opposite sides of slot 40 are actuating arms 44 and 45 either of which, upon engagement with the surface to be cleaned, cause movement of valve 34 to its proper operative position as will be described below. Preferably I provide a spring 46 having one of its ends connected to pivot pin 43 and its other end connected to pin 40. When T-lever 41 is moved from one operative position to the other, spring 46 is loaded as the lever passes through its dead center position, the bias of the spring accordingly assisting further movement of the lever to its position of rest which determines the proper operative position of valve 34.

As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, the overall length of arms 44 and 45 exceeds the depth of nozzle body .10 so that the end of one arm or the other lies outside the plane of the upper or lower body wall as the case may be. It is this feature that provides the automatic adjustment of valve 34 to its proper operative position.

In operation, and assuming that the surface to be cleaned dictates application of the nozzle in the FIGURE 1 position, the nozzle is placed on the surface to be cleaned and if the end of arm 44 lies outside the plane of the lower wall of the nozzle, the surface engaged by the arm 44 will push the arm upwardly causing T-lever to rock clockwise. This movement will actuate crank 39 and shaft 37 to rotate valve 34 clockwise until its curved wall 340 seals off body aperture 27 while placing aperture 28 and hole 29 (FIGURE in communication.

If the other side of the nozzle is to be used, lever arm 45 actuates the valve mechanism in reverse fashion so that valve wall 340 now seals ofif aperture 28 (FIGURE 2) and places aperture 27 and hole 29 (FIGURE 5) in communication. Thus, regardless of the position of use of the nozzle, its valve 34 is always automatically moved to its proper operative position.

In FIGURES 7-12 I have shown my nozzle wherein a modified actuating mechanism for the rotary valve 34 is provided. Otherwise the nozzle is substantially identical to the nozzle shown in FIGURES 1-6. Thus as shown in FIGURES 9 and 11, valve hub 36 has secured thereto a crank arm 50 from the outer end of which a pin 51 extends. One end of a spring 52 is connected to pin 51 while the other end of the spring, as shown in FIGURE 11, is connected to a pin 53 fastened in any suitable manner to the inside of nozzle wall 21.

A shaft 54 has its inner end secured to the other valve hub 35 while to the outer end of this shaft a crank arm 55 is suitably secured. Arm 55 carries an outwardly directed pin 56 which extends into a slot 57 formed in a lever 58. This lever 58 is pivotally connected at its upper end by a pin 59 to an actuating arm 60 hinged as at 61 (FIGURE ,7) to nozzle body 20. A small roller 62 (FIGURES 9 and ll) is preferably mounted on the lower end of lever 58 to reduce friction when the surface to be cleaned is engaged.

As shown in FIGURES 8 and 10, body 20 is preferably provided with a slotted partition 63 in whose slot lever 58 rides when the valve operating mechanism is actuated. Roller 62 is accordingly, accommodated in a chamber 64 formed by partition 63 and body Wall 25. Thus, most of the valve actuating mechanism is enclosed in the nozzle body 20'.

This valve actuating mechanism (FIGURES 712) operates generally in the same manner as that shown in FIGURES 1-6. Thus, lever 58 is so proportioned with respect to the depth of nozzle body 20, ie the distance between its walls 21 and 22, that either arm 60 lies outside the plane of nozzle wall 21 (as shown in FIGURE 7) or roller 62 lies without the plane of nozzle wall 22 (see FIGURE 8). If then the type of surface to be cleaned indicates that nozzle wall 22 for example, is to be the lowermost, the nozzle is accordingly in position and the surface to be cleaned is engaged by roller 62. This engagement forces lever 58 upwardly to swing crank arm counter clockwise thus to rotate valve 34 in the same direction until its arcuate wall 340 closes body aperture 27 as shown in FIGURE 7. Spring 52 (FIGURES 9 and 11) assists in this movement of the valve in about the same manner as heretofore described with respect to spring 46 (FIGURE 3). Of course, this movement of the valve communicates aperture 28 (FIGURE 12) with hole 29.so that air may flow into elbow 31.

If the other side of the nozzle is used, arm engages the surface to be cleaned and the valve 34 is actuated in reverse fashion to place aperture 27 and hole 29 in com- 4 munication while valve wall 34c seals aperture 28 as shown in FIGURE 8.

Thus it may now be seen that I have provided a suction cleaner nozzle that attains the several objects set forth above in a thoroughly practical and efficient manner.

I claim:

A multi-purpose suction cleaner tool comprising a hollow body having first and second nozzles in back-t0- back relation, the hollow body having first and second lip structures at first and second opposing faces thereof, respectively, which respectively define first and second suction openings of the first and second nozzles, the body having an opening serving asan outlet for each nozzle, valve means, means for mounting the valve means in the body for movement between first and second positions, the valve means in the first position only'providing a path of fiow for air between the first suction opening and the outlet and in the second position only providing a path of flow for air between the second suction opening and the outlet, a suction conduit elbow, means for connecting the elbow to the body at the outlet, the connecting means providing a rotatable connection whereby the body is rotatable on the elbow about a horizontal axis, the elbow having a branch extending at an. acute angle to the axis in a generally upward direction, means including a hollow wand for manually manipulating the body on the surface to be cleaned, the wand having one end thereof connected to the branch and the other end thereof adapted to be connected to a source of suction, each of the suction openings being movable to a downward facing position responsive to rotation of the body about the axis through an angle of from the downward facing position of the other of the suction openings, mechanism carried by the body for moving the valve means from its second position to its first position after the body is rotated 180 about the axis to bring the first suction opening to its downward facing position and for moving the valve means from its first position to its second position after the body is rotated 180 about the axis to bring the second suction opening to its downward facing position, the mechanism including a first part which extends beyond the first face of the body when the latter is in anoperative position for cleaning with the second suction opening in good physical contact with the surface to be cleaned and when the body has been rotated 180 about'the axis to shift the first suction opening to a downward facing first intermediate position at which the first suction opening is at least partly elevated from the surface to be cleaned, the mechanism also including a second part which extends beyond the second face of the body when the latter is in an operative position for cleaning with the first suction opening in good physical contact with the surface to be cleaned and when the body has been rotated 180 about the axis to shift the second suction opening to a downward facing second intermediate position at which the second suction opening is at least partly elevated from the surface to be cleaned, means embodied in the mechanism for the first part to impart movement to the valve means to move the latter from its second position to its first position responsive only to downward vertical movement of the body from its first intermediate position to an operative position for cleaning with the first suction opening in good physical contact with the surface to be cleaned, and for the second part to impart movement to the valve means to move the latter from its first position to its second position responsive only to downward vertical movement of the body from its second intermediate position to an operative position for cleaning with the second suction opening in good physical contact with the surface to be cleaned, and the mechanism being so constructed and arranged that the first and second parts are operable to impart the aforementioned movement to the valve means responsive only to downward vertical movement of the body from its first and second intermediate positions, respectively, while the upwardly extending 5 6 branch of the elbow remains substantially at the same 2,624,064 Snyder Jan. 6, 1953 acute angle to the horizontal axis. 2,632,914 White Mar. 31, 1953 2,838,783 Allen June 17, 1958 References Cited in the file of this patent 2,873,469 Borkoski Feb. 17, 1959 UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 FOREIGN PATENTS 2,143,845 Edstrom Jan. 17, 1939 104,536 Sweden May 19, 1942 2,619,315 Ott Nov. 25, 1952 122,040 Switzerland Aug. 16, 1927 

